


Barcelona

by DorkWingsRise



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU: Lila disappeared from school, Aged Up, F/F, Heartbroken Alya, Lila Rossi Redemption, Nurturing Chloe (lol), You'll figure it out.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:01:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23630515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DorkWingsRise/pseuds/DorkWingsRise
Summary: When Alya is hiding out in Barcelona and needs her butt kicked, Chloé is the woman for the Job.  ( Set in the same universe as my A Talk In the Park).
Relationships: Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Lila Rossi, Chloé Bourgeois/Alya Césaire
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Barcelona

The bread was objectively amazing.Crusty.Still warm from the oven.Everything a person could want in a loaf of bread on a sunny morning in Barcelona.“Perfect for everyone but me”, thought Alya, as she carefully set the bread downwind of her on the bench.Maybe another sip of coffee would help.Ok.One sip too many too soon.“Breathe it out, Alya.Fresh morning air.You’ve got this.”Oh, the little lies we tell ourselves after a sleepless night. And the little truths we can’t ignore.“This isn’t working.”

And so it was that Alya hovered on the edge of unpleasant alternatives — sickly awake or fretful sleep, fruitless distraction or painful awareness — as she slumped, eyes closed, on a bench in Parc Güell. 

“My God, Césaire, you smell like a distillery!Look at the state you’re in!Ridiculous!Utterly Ridiculous!”

Alya couldn’t help it.She started to giggle.“Of course.On a morning when I feel like absolute death, who shows up to berate me but the great Chloé Bourgeois. God, I’ve missed you.”

“Well, that is on you Césaire.There has been no word of you for months.Completely unacceptable.You need to stop this.And if you don’t talk to me, you need to at least call her.”

“I know.”Alya winced as her throbbing head threatened to burst.She eyed her coffee suspiciously, then set it down next to her bread, still carefully downwind.“I just didn’t know what to say after so long.And after a while, I felt so bad about not keeping in touch.I don’t know.I just don’t know how to start anymore.”

“She is your best friend!She loves you!How can this be hard?”

“That is just it.I’m the bad friend.I’m the one who should have been the most excited that she and Adrien got married.I’m the one who couldn’t get past this stupid hurt feeling and had to get the hell out of Paris before it showed.God, I suck.”

“You don’t suck, Alya.At worst, you are a lesfic stereotype; but who among us hasn’t been at some point.You fell for your straight best friend.It happens.It sucks, but it happens.Are you at least doing anything here with your writing?That was the excuse, right?Chasing stories?Magic Barcelona?”

“Chloé, you are killing me, here.No.I mean this city really is magical.But I’ve gotten the sense lately that I have drained it dry of magicMaybe I’m being melodramatic.Pretty sure, though, that once I leave, Barcelona will never be the same for me again.”

“Maybe you’ve just drained it dry of Sangria? When was the last time you bathed, Césaire?”

“Clooooé, please, ” Alya whined.“This is so not fair right now.”

“My point exactly.” 

“Damnit.Did I mention that I’ve missed you. Why couldn’t I have fallen for you?I mean, why didn’t I fall for you?You are a total smoke-show.I love that hat, by the way.I may steal it when my arms work again.Don’t hate me.”

“You didn’t fall for me in part because the one time that we tried we couldn’t even successfully kiss!”

“Well if you hadn’t started giggling—”

“Me?No, Césaire, you were the one who started giggling.”

“Who can remember.Maybe it was that last bottle of Champagne that was giggling.”

Chloé smiled.“Maybe.But face it, Alya, however much I love you — and why would I be here if I didn’t love you — you and I don’t work that way.”

Alya gave Chloé’s had a gentle squeeze.“Love you too, Chloé.”

“So let me make a suggestion from personal, painful experience.Listening?”

“I am.Just a tiny bit quieter, OK?”

“Fine.Here’s the thing.You aren’t going to find a way forward if you keep stirring your old ashes.Or by trying to hide from the unpleasant job of stirring your old ashes.As long as those are your only choices, you will be stuck in the same rut.You’ll still hurt, you’ll still feel guilty, and you still won’t know what the hell to do.You can’t just set your life aside. I’m sure your girlfriends at the clubs will miss you, but you need to start actually doing something.”

“I just dance with them Chloé.Mostly. And, yeah.Nino said something like that years ago when we broke up.Not about club girls, but about stopping my life.I was so pissed off at him at the time.”

“I don’t mean this in a mean way at all, because I’ve grown to really like Nino, but I didn’t know he had that in him.”

“Who did?What is he up to anyway?”

“Dating Xavier.I didn’t see that coming at all until it suddenly seemed inevitable.”

“Bluh.Fine, Chloé, you win.I’ll get moving.But doing what?I’ve written a few pieces down here, and a some people owe me the oddfavor; but I’d want to have something really big to pitch if I was going to call in my markers.And the only breaking news I have right now is that this year’s Sangria seems to be stronger than last year’s Sangria.”

“That depends, Alya.How serious are you?And how much do you trust me? Because I am not going to do this unless you are fully on board.”

“Of course, I trust you.And, yes.If you’ve got a lead for me, then I’m in.”

“Good.Come with me.We barely have enough time to get you cleaned up.But I warn you right now, you are going to need a very open mind, and you are going to have to keep your tongue in check.”

“I promise, Chloé, I won’t screw things up for you.”

“I’m more worried about you screwing things up for yourself, Alya.C’mon.”

And so it was that only a short time later, Chloé and Alya were making their way through the busy Port of Barcelona.

“I don’t think the ships we might want are down this way, “Chloé.”

“I’m not looking for a yacht, Alya.The warehouse that we want is just up ahead.”

“Warehouse?”

“Remember, Césaire, an open mind and a zipped lip.”

“Fine, fine.”

“Great.You head through there to the loading dock.I’ll be at the room down the end of this hall, checking in on my girlfriend. After you are done with your interview, come and get us and we can get some proper food in you.You should be ready to eat by then.”

“Wait!Girlfriend?You have a girlfriend?”

“You miss a lot when you go decide to run dark, Alya.Go.The sooner you take care of your business, the sooner we can have some fun.”

Alya shot Chloé a quick salute and walked in to the warehouse, which seemed mostly empty.A loud banging noise drew Alya toward the back, where someone — her contact? — had just finished hammering a crate closed and was now noting something on her tablet.This little section of the warehouse was almost homey.There was a table for the tools and tablet and two neatly stacked piles of what looked like paper invoices,a lamp, and an ancient looking stool.Alya let her gaze run over the woman as she typed in her pad.Her jet black hair was cut short, which made sense given her dress, which looked a whole lot like military issue shorts, boots and tank top.All of which, from behind, was pretty special.The woman was chiseled.Shoulders forever.Lats that were completely unfair.Tiny waste. All in all, a v-taper to die for. _Who knew,_ thought Alya, _I have a type._ Or did she say that out loud?Because the woman turned and Alya was drowning in olive green eyes.

“Hey, Alya.I didn’t hear you come in.Honestly, I wasn’t sure that Chloé could convince you to come down.”

Wait a second.“Lila?”

Lila cocked an eyebrow.“Let me guess, Chloé kept you in the dark.This wasn’t supposed to go this way.I’m sorry.”

Alya was struggling to catch up.“Lila Rossi?!”

“Um, look, why don’t you sit over here on the stool for a second.You look a little wobbly and maybe more than a little hungover?Do you need some coffee?”

“No!No coffee.Thanks but, just —”Alya shuddered.“Already tried and failed the coffee experiment.So.Right.Lila.What are you doing here?Wearing, what is that Italian Army gear?Looking like…like that.And where the hell did you disappear to all those years ago?I mean, seriously, Lila, what the hell?”

“Shit, maybe I should be the one sitting.”Lila lookup up in to the darkness of the upper corners of the warehouse, sighed, and looked back at Alya with eyes that looked tired and more than a bit sad.“Maybe it is easiest if I do this chronologically.I mean, assuming you really want the story. And, I get it that maybe you don’t really want the story so much.I was a real shit back in school.I know that.And I can’t apologize enough for how horrible I was to you.”

Alya pushed her glasses up to the top of her head and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands.She wanted to tell Lila to fuck off.But she had promised Chloé repeatedly that she’d keep an open mind and a closed mouth.“I can’t promise that I’ll believe what you have to say.Because, all things considered, this is just—” Alya paused for a deep breath, “a lot. But, tell me.I promise that I’ll at least listen.”

Lila smiled shyly.“Thanks for that, Alya.”

“Honestly, thank Chloé, but, sure.”

“Believe me, I have.Ok, so, first:a thing about my mother.She can be a very giving, trusting person. But she will not abide being played.And at some point she figured out that I had been playing her.That was when I disappeared from school.There are two acceptable paths in my family.You can study language and history and political science and economics and all of those things and find a path in Foreign Service; or you join the military.At least those are the options for everyone who isn’t a savant of some sort, which I am not. Following my Mother to Paris was part of my path toward a Foreign Service career.Getting bounced back to Italy from Paris was the beginning of my path toward a military career.Which is a long way of saying that I was sent to military school.All very old school.All very ball-busting.But it probably saved my life because who knows what I would have become if I had been allowed to continue along the path that I was on in Paris.”

“I’m trying to figure out how you got through military school without someone ending your life.I mean, I’m really not trying to be a jerk, but how were you not beaten down?Daily?”

Lila laughed.“I was some weird mix of smart enough and scared enough to not start anything.Besides, no one was really interested in talk there anyway.Or status.They worked us until we dropped, and all anyone really cared about was what you did.Did you carry your load?Would you step up and help? Could your squad trust you with their lives?It was all a very different world for me. And after a few years of that type of highly structured life, those became my values.I mean, I guess I grew up.But I was heavily molded in that process. And, in some weird way, it worked for me. So, yeah: soldier hair, soldier clothes, soldier body. Are you sure you are ok?I’ve got some water if that would help?It’s hot in here.” Lila, pulled a bottle of water from a battered cooler and handed it Alya.

“Thanks.So.Ok.Military school. Then what?”

“Military school, Officer’s Training, and then deployed. I’m not sure if I was drawn to or guided toward Logistics, but by the time I was deployed, that was my area of specialization.I’m really good at getting supplies to their destinations, on time, and intact. Weirdly fun, but a bit spicy at times. We deployed as a part of NATO missions to places where supply chain interruption was a primary goal of people who really didn’t want us there. So my people and I were targets.I’ve been bombed a few times. No matter how you come away from that sort of thing, it clarifies what matters in life a bit.”

“Why all the lies and manipulation back in school?I trusted you.Hell, I trusted you over my best friend.And I get that, ultimately, that was on me.But still.”

“I don’t know.Not entirely.I haven’t really had the time to look back and try to make sense of how I got to be that way.I do know that I was struggling a lot with coming out. I was attracted to girls and I loathed that about myself.It wouldn’t fly in my family.It was a lifestyle that was fine for other people, but not for a Rossi.So I’m sure that part of all of that nastiness was some fucked up attempt to make sure that I was in control of the girls around me, and to align myself romantically with a suitable guy.But I’m sure there were other things.Honestly, I’ve just been trying to live differently.To find things that really matter and do things to help.”

“Which has something to do with a warehouse in Barcelona?”

Lila smiled.“I’ve been seconded.Some powerful people want to help with some humanitarian relief projects.And when they ask their dear friends in the government that they need logistics support, and strings are pulled at the highest levels of command, suddenly Captain Rossi becomes, well, not expendable, but secondable.If that is even a word. So, yeah, I’m checking inventories here,getting things ready for shipment, and then I’ll hop ahead to take deliver and set up shop to make sure that everything that I send gets delivered intact.Most of this is headed to a conflict zone that might be facing an epidemic in the near future.So, yeah.Good cause?Check.And getting stuff delivered is what I do.”

Alya lowered her throbbing forehead against the now half-empty bottle of water.“So, where do I fit in to all of this?Hypothetically, I mean?”

“Well, hypothetically, you’d fill out one of these forms that I have here and maybe you wind up going where these crates are going.There is scope for one embedded journalist.We just need someone who is interested, who could follow the rules and not put everyone at risk of contagion or bullets, and who has someone ready to print what they write. For me, the second bit is the most important.I know you like to get out and get after a story, Alya.I saw you rushing out to get the scoop for your Lady Blog.But where you’d be going, you’d have to sit back because it wouldn’t be just you if things went wrong.So if you are interested, you’d have to think long and hard about whether you could play by rules that would feel pretty constraining. And, yeah, to get the gig, you’d need a contact and some sort of verifiable deal.”

“I’d need to make some calls, but I am pretty sure that I could pitch this to The Guardian or Al Jazeera.”

“I’m not the person who will be making the call, but I am pretty sure those would work.”

Alya sighed.“I liked you, Lila.Back in school I liked you a lot.I don’t need to trust Chloé to see that you’ve built a better life;that you’ve become more three dimensional; and that you have a real heart beating in your chest.But what the hell am I supposed to do with you right now?”

“I don’t know.Look, for what it is worth, I liked you back in school too.More than a lot. And before you decide, you should know this.I will be over there with you about 75% of the time.So if having me around isa deal-breaker, then this won’t be such a great opportunity for you. But, um, I’d love to get to know you again.For real this time.”

Alya looked up in to Lila’s eyes for a very long time.“Damnit. Why did you have to be such a shit back then?”And then Alya stood up and kissed Lila.It was a hard kiss.Long.Insistent.Fierce.And then she pushed Lilaback.“If that is going to be a deal breaker then maybe this won’t be such a great thing for me either.”But between the lack of sleep, the hangover, and the emotional rollercoaster of the day, Alya’s lower lip was trembling as she said it.

“Alya, hey, it’s OK.Don’t cry.”

“I don’t cry, damnit.”

“Sure, sure.There is just this, um,water on your face.Hey, come here.”

And then Lila pulled Alya close and kissed her gently on her swollen lips, one hand pulling her close, the other reaching up in to her hair, strocking the thick strands, coming it between her fingers and then, as the kiss gained speed,closing her hand to tug Alya’s head back by the hair so that she could gain access to Alya’s neck.

Alya felt her sense overload.She lost all sense of the warehouse. She lost all sense of time.Her world reduced to three things.The delicious suction on her neck below her ear and the tiny thread of pain that seemed to stitch her entire body together.The supple strength of the waist that her legs were now wrapped around. The sound of her own voice saying over and over “Baby, don’t stop, please don’t stop.”


End file.
